


Sacraments

by Lady_Nivian



Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mention of Matt/Elektra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Nivian/pseuds/Lady_Nivian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three Sacraments that Matt Murdock has gone to over the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacraments

**Author's Note:**

> My first fill for the Daredevil Bingo Challenge. Fill for the prompt “sacrament”. Not really sure where I was going with this, if anywhere. I started writing and it kind of just happened. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine, obviously.  
> Second disclaimer: I did as much homework for this as I could, but I’m a traditional, confessional Lutheran and a member of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS). Not a Roman Catholic, in other words (though I am catholic). If there are any Roman Catholics reading who see problems with doctrine, rites, etc. please let me know so I can fix it! I don’t want to offend or misrepresent anyone!

Baptism

 

Matt doesn’t remember his own baptism. It was an infant baptism, so no one expects him to, but his father told him about it once. That his Irish Catholic Grandmother Murdock dragged the whole family to Mass to watch baby Matthew scream at the font while the priest tried to douse him in Holy Baptismal Waters. That’s how his father put it anyway. Apparently screaming had been baby Matt’s response to everything that day, from the white gown his grandmother sewed him and made him wear to the moment when he was lifted from his mother’s arms to be held by the priest as he recited the Sacrament of Baptism:  _ “Matthew Michael, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” _

Matt still has the white gown somewhere. It’s made of a silky, white (according to the nuns) material that is cool and smooth beneath his hypersensitive fingertips when he runs his hand over it. He doesn’t have any memories attached to the gown: his father told him about it when recounting the narrative of Matt’s Horrific Baptism Experience, but never showed it to him. He knows that it went to college with him in a small box placed inside the slightly bigger box that held all of his memorabilias: his father’s robe, his mother’s wedding band, and a few other possession from the Murdock family. 

But not having seen the gown before he lost his sight, he doesn’t think of it often. It’s not something that comes to mind when he thinks about his baptism (which he does as often as  a good Catholic boy should).

Once, when he and Foggy were going through his box of possessions so that Matt could show Foggy his father’s robe and the few pictures he has of his family, Foggy had pulled the gown out of the box and jokingly remarked that it looked and felt like women’s lingerie. Matt had smiled and explained to Foggy what it was, but now he’s glad that the gown isn’t mentally attached to his baptism. Because now all he can think about when he does think of the little gown is Foggy’s lingerie comment. And Matt  _ is  _ Catholic after all.

* * *

 

Penance

 

Matt may not remember his baptism, but he’ll never forget his first confession. It was after his father’s death when he was living at St. Agnes with the nuns. He was told that he would be confirmed with three other children from the orphanage along with several more from the rest of the congregation at St. Agnes’ Catholic Church, and that they would all go to private confession on Saturday afternoon. The nuns advised them to start meditating upon their sins so that they would know what to say in the confessional. 

Despite the advice, Matt tried not to think about it leading up to the dreaded Saturday.

Saturday came and the four of them huddled together behind Sister Agatha united with one another through their mutual fear of the unknown. Sister Agatha led them to sit in a pew, waiting to enter the confessional. The longer they sat in the hard pew the more anxious the four became. Matt, his own anxiety combined with the quick, nervous heartbeats of the three children beside him, could hardly hold still and wished he could get up and pace. He knew what he had to confess to the priest. Not every thirteen year old could confess to murdering their father. Matthew Michael Murdock could.

Matt couldn’t forget his First Confession even if he wanted to. He had assumed that telling his most secret sin to the priest and hearing the Words of Absolution pronounced would ease the guilt once and for all. But though the priest absolved his sins  _ “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” _ Matt emerged from the confessional feeling even worse than when he entered. He was thankful for the dark glasses he wore which covered any tears in his eyes.

* * *

  
Eucharist

 

Matt knew the importance of Communion and tried to attend Mass every week whenever possible throughout college. He went by himself, sat in the back of the church, sang softly and modestly, and received the Eucharist every week he was there. Foggy miraculously always managed to laugh at his own over-used joke about Matt attending Mass almost  _ religiously.  _ Despite Matt’s continued response of eye-rolling. 

Then Elektra had stormed into Matt’s life making him believe that she was the best thing in life. Mass, like everything else, was put on the back-burner for Elektra. The change was sudden and Foggy caught on almost immediately. He went from “Choir-boy Matt” to never attending Mass almost overnight. Foggy began asking questions about it. He even went so far as to offer to go with Matt a few times. But somehow Matt could never be bothered to force himself to the church on Sunday morning.

Then Elektra left. Just as suddenly as she had appeared, she disappeared. And it was suddenly apparent to Matt that he had neglect Mass for  _ months.  _ Ashamed of himself and his behavior, he dragged himself to the second most painful confession of his life. Second only to his first confession. He knows that he was in the confessional for over half and hour. He knows that there were people waiting outside the confessional for him to be finished who were sighing and whispering about how long he was taking. He remembers very clearly how he stumbled out of the stuffy confessional feeling drained and empty.

He took Foggy up on his offer the next Sunday morning and Foggy attended his first Catholic Mass with Matt that Sunday. Foggy stayed in the pew when Matt walked toward the chancel with the rest of the communicants and ate and drank of his Savior’s body and blood. And to his surprise, he felt as if part of the weight which Elektra had left upon his shoulders lifted when the priest spoke the dismissal: _ “The Mass is ended. Go in peace.” _

Since that day, Foggy always offered to attend Mass with Matt on major church festivals, as well as when he knew Matt was down and needed a push to get him to the church on Sunday morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adore the idea that Matt would have his mother’s wedding ring, I thought I would include it as my own little detail to Matt’s past. (After all, his mother is a nun… probably not going to be needing that anymore. Why wouldn’t she leave it with Jack when she left?)


End file.
